# Gemma 3 12B ![Organization](https://img.shields.io/badge/Org-Google-4285F4) ![Parameters](https://img.shields.io/badge/Params-12B-1f6feb) ![Context](https://img.shields.io/badge/Context-128K%20tokens-1f6feb) ![License](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-Gemma%20ToU-d29922) ![Weights](https://img.shields.io/badge/Weights-Open-2da44e) ![Released](https://img.shields.io/badge/Released-Mar%202025-555) > **Quick answer:** Gemma 3 12B is Google's March 2025 mid-tier open-weight multimodal model, scoring 85.4% on HumanEval and 60.6% on MMLU-Pro. With a 128K context window under the Gemma Terms of Use, it provides strong coding and multimodal capability in a 12B parameter footprint — deployable on a single mid-range GPU. ## At a Glance **Where Gemma 3 12B leads** - 85.4% HumanEval — excellent function-level code completion for a 12B model - 60.6% MMLU-Pro — competitive academic knowledge at 12B scale - 128K context window - Multimodal: text and image inputs at 12B scale - Single-GPU deployable (in quantised form) - Open weights on Hugging Face **Where it lags** - 60.6% MMLU-Pro — below Phi-4 (70.4% at 14B) despite similar size - Below Gemma 3 27B on all benchmarks (expected) - Gemma Terms of Use — not fully permissive (not Apache 2.0 / MIT) - Text+vision only **Best for:** Resource-constrained open-weight multimodal deployments; edge and on-device inference; teams that need vision at 12B scale. ## What Gemma 3 12B Is Gemma 3 12B is the mid-tier model in Google's Gemma 3 family, released March 12, 2025 alongside the 1B, 4B, 12B, and 27B variants. At 12B parameters with multimodal capability and a 128K context window, it is designed for deployments where the 27B model's infrastructure requirements are too high. Its 85.4% HumanEval score is strong for a 12B model — approaching the 87.8% of the 27B version despite having less than half the parameters. This reflects Google's training efficiency improvements in the Gemma 3 generation. For pure text tasks requiring strong knowledge, Phi-4 (14B, 70.4% MMLU-Pro) outperforms Gemma 3 12B (60.6%) at a similar size and with a fully permissive Apache 2.0 license. Gemma 3 12B is preferred when multimodal vision capability is a requirement. ## Specifications | Field | Value | |---|---| | Organization | Google | | Parameters | 12B (dense) | | Context window | 128,000 tokens | | License | Gemma Terms of Use | | HuggingFace | [google/gemma-3-12b-it](https://huggingface.co/google/gemma-3-12b-it) | | Release date | March 12, 2025 | | Knowledge cutoff | September 2024 | | Modality | Text + Vision (multimodal) | ## Pricing Gemma 3 12B is available as open weights under the Gemma Terms of Use. Available via Google Cloud Vertex AI and third-party providers. ## Public Benchmark Scores | Benchmark | Score | Source | Date | |---|---|---|---| | [HumanEval](/benchmarks/humaneval) | 85.4% | Benchgen evaluation | 2025-07 | | [MMLU-Pro](/benchmarks/mmlu-pro) | 60.6% | Benchgen evaluation | 2025-07 | ## Gemma 3 12B vs Alternatives | Model | HumanEval | MMLU-Pro | Vision | License | |---|---|---|---|---| | **Gemma 3 12B** | 85.4% | 60.6% | Yes | Gemma ToU | | [Gemma 3 27B](/models/google/gemma-3-27b) | 87.8% | 67.5% | Yes | Gemma ToU | | [Phi-4](/models/microsoft/phi-4) | 82.6% | 70.4% | No | Apache 2.0 | | [Qwen3 32B](/models/qwen/qwen3-32b) | — | — | No | Apache 2.0 | For vision tasks at small scale: Gemma 3 12B is the recommended open-weight choice. For text-only tasks: Phi-4 achieves higher MMLU-Pro (70.4%) at similar size with Apache 2.0 license. ## Related Models & Benchmarks - Compare: [Gemma 3 27B](/models/google/gemma-3-27b) · [Phi-4](/models/microsoft/phi-4) · [Qwen3 32B](/models/qwen/qwen3-32b) - Benchmarks: [HumanEval](/benchmarks/humaneval) · [MMLU-Pro](/benchmarks/mmlu-pro) ## Frequently Asked Questions

What is Gemma 3 12B?

Gemma 3 12B is Google's March 2025 open-weight multimodal 12B model, scoring 85.4% HumanEval and 60.6% MMLU-Pro with a 128K context window.

Is Gemma 3 12B open source?

The weights are open under the Gemma Terms of Use on Hugging Face. Commercial use is permitted with conditions — review the license terms.

Does Gemma 3 12B support images?

Yes. Gemma 3 12B supports text and image inputs (multimodal).

Should I use Gemma 3 12B or Gemma 3 27B?

Gemma 3 27B achieves higher scores on all benchmarks (87.8% vs 85.4% HumanEval, 67.5% vs 60.6% MMLU-Pro). Choose 12B when the 27B infrastructure requirement (memory/compute) is the constraint.

--- *Specs from Google's official Gemma 3 release (March 2025) and Benchgen evaluations. Last updated 2026-07-24.*

Gemma 3 12B — Evaluations

Evaluations